Fox Theatre Inglewood

Opened: March 31, 1949 with “Mr. Belvedere Goes to College,” starring Clifton Webb and Shirley Temple. It replaced the Granada Theatre which was destroyed by fire in 1945.

The Fox Inglewood is across the street from the site of the United Artists.

Architects: S. Charles Lee and Carl G. Moeller designed the building for Fox West Coast using elements out of Fox's standard "Skouras Style" sourcebook.

It's very similar to a number of other Fox circuit theatres up and down the coast, especially the Fresno Crest and Sacramento Crest. The construction cost was reported to be $400,000. See our blogspot posts for a few more projects by the prolific Mr. Lee.

At a time when much design was getting the modern look, the head of Fox West Coast Theatres, Charles Skouras, had his architectural team in the late 40s and early 50s take a different tack towards a lush neo-baroque feel.

The program was an attempt to create a program so theatres could be remodeled (or constructed from scratch as the Fox Inglewood was) in an economical fashion while creating a new sumptuous feel for post-war audiences with new expectations of luxury.

While many of the buildings ended up quite different from each other, you could always spot certain prefabricated elements: lush red draperies, exotic gold plaster swirls encompassing the proscenium, etched aluminum surround panels at the snack bar and drinking fountains, etc. The basic program was applied to hundreds of theatres. While the components differed, the consistent style was unmistakable. Fox maintained its own huge assembly plant to produce many of the decorative elements.

In a remodel it might be just a shiny "padded-looking" gold and aluminum snack bar and a few Skouras swirls below the proscenium like the Palace downtown. Or it could mean gutting the building and ending up with a totally new creation in an old shell like the Crest in Sacramento.

Seating: 1,166

The Fox in the Movies: "Do you really like movies? When's the last time you went to see a movie in a theatre?... A movie that really meant something to you?" asks Lindsey Lohan in Paul Schrader's "The Canyons" (IFC Films, 2013).

This wide-angle shot of the Fox is in the opening credits for the film, which begins and ends with desaturated views of abandoned movie theatres. The film, written by Bret Easton Ellis, is a thriller about some sad people on the fringes of the film business.

Status: It's been closed since 1984 and is a curious well preserved time capsule. The present owner is trying to sell the building for the best offer he can get above $200,000. LAHTF's Hillsman Wright has called it "a time capsule from 1949."

LA Curbed ran a story "Fox on the Auction Block" in December 2009. An auction was set for February 2010 but didn't happen. There was hope that the City of Inglewood would consider purchasing the building. That seems unlikely.

The LAHTF has been trying to drum up support for the plan by giving tours and organizing community meetings. The Inglewood Fox Theatre Alliance (IFTA) has been formed with the goal of building a coalition to restore the Fox as a multi-purpose entertainment venue.

More information: Check out the LA Weekly story "Welcome to Inglewood.." for a nice discussion of Inglewood and what happened to it by Erin Aubry Kaplan.

The LAHTF is actively involved in the study and preservation of the many vintage theatres in the Los Angeles area. The group frequently supports events and offers tours of the buildings.www.lahtf.org | group Facebook page | official FB page

See more of Michelle's adventurous theatre explorations in her "Theatres-California"
set on Flickr.
Thanks, Michelle!

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